LITTLE IS MUCH
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Acts 13:38, 39 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Testimonies that begin in the depraved gutters of society are worthy of celebration. We are all gratified that Jesus is able to save even the most despicable, but what of the least offensive? How celebratory are we toward the person of great moral character that hears the call and finds redemption in the Cross of Christ. Christ died for both kinds of wickedness; the great wickedness of abandon and the little wickedness of reserve. If we make a comparable analysis between the least and most wicked it is the little sins by good people for which Christ suffered most. Is the norm in our day or any other day to do evil? Evil is in our hearts. Evil permeates our thought process but it’s manifestation in our life is tempered and derailed by conscience. People have the ability to continually, forcefully, and obstinately, pursue wicked desires that will short-circuit or burn-out their conscience, but most bend an ear towards conscience. Is it any great feat of the imagination to realize we all suffer the same conflict and attack of conscience? Though we may have never heard of the “Golden Rule” or the Ten Commandments, we have heard from our hardwired, embedded, and endowed conscience. Every man, woman, and child is aware of conscience. Conscience is our innate ability to discern right from wrong; a God-implanted moral compass. The Ten Commandments are only the legal document that binds us to God’s law. Our conscience agrees with the law of God, but has no part in judgment. Conscience is like our own built in “blue lights”, a mental cop on a beat in our minds. When we devise to do wrong we know it is wrong because of the sudden 911 emergency call of conscience. Our conscience is urging us to follow a better path to avoid impending harm. If that doesn’t work a squad car of adrenalin rush is sent through our body and conscience unleashes the blazing blue lights, siren, and the overbearing loudspeaker that warns, “Step back from the edge! Do not take another step in that direction! Keep calm and take slow, deep, breaths.” Conscience is resident with all men. Is there any better reason to believe in God knowing that, for some particular reason, all men agree in the basic tenants of right and wrong?
Is the world filled with people who defy their God-given conscience and strike out on binges of evil deed to match intent? Certainly not! Therefore, it is in the little wrongs, unnoticed and secret, laughed at or ignored, cute and funny, white or a shade of gray, and with good intent that caused Jesus much suffering. Why did Jesus suffer on the cross? All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6.) Christ suffered for our iniquity; our wrong doing. He did not suffer only for great aggravated sin, but for all sin. Christ suffered for every easy lie as well as for the one which kills. Christ died for the envy that causes a neighbor to suffer an insulting gesture or a bullet in the head. Yet, which of these offenses occurs more often than the other? How often does our conscience derail the act of pointing a gun and firing to just throwing a curse or an insult?
Christ died for Hitler who killed more than six million Jews. Hitler devised a conquering strategy for placing the whole world under his thumb. For years he had slowly convinced the German people of internal and external persecution. They suffered at the hands of the Jews and were hampered by an oppressive and outdated non-aggression treaty. Woe is Germany! Inflation and a declining economy created fertile ground for grandiose and ambitious iniquity. Hitler succeeded in convincing German Christendom of right in racism, brute appropriation, and righteous retribution. And when he had everyone on his side the other jackboot came crashing down on Europe. Blitzkrieg! And, Austria fell. Blitzkrieg! And, Poland fell. Blitzkrieg! And, soon only Britain remained. Could Hitler have done all he did by his own volition? It took many men doing many little wrongs to make Hitler’s big wrong a reality. Oh, great is Germany’s sin! If you place the iniquity of Hitler on a scale to one side and the iniquity of the rest of Germany on the other, the other would win hands down! Sometimes little is much.
During this grievous time young men joined up to fight this oppressive and evil endeavor. Johnny Eagle Scout at age fifteen went down to the recruiter and signed up to fight the evil of Nazism. When he made his case for being seventeen, Christ suffered for the lie. After boot camp Johnny strutted in his new uniform before the other fifteen year-olds who couldn’t look seventeen and Christ suffered for his boastful pride.
The next great war was not a fight between flesh and blood but between vice and virtue. On the street corners of the inner cities dope dealers began to blossom like dark petals of evil decadence. The pedaled poison in their hands soon found protection in the homes of the forlorn and downtrodden. Yet, the entertainment value of soothing poison caused many to turn a blind eye or deaf ear to the cries of weeping mothers and rising crime. Christ suffered and died for the dealer. Christ had to die for such an evil.
The cop on the take and the affluent man with the wherewithal turned their eyes away from the horror of killing habit. For every one dope dealer there were dozens of eyes that looked away. Christ suffered for the lukewarm heart full of apathy as an accomplice to hurt. He died for the false witness of the unseeing witnesses. He died for the greed, covetousness, and killing of the cop on the take. The sin of the dealer is great. Yet, comparatively, Christ suffered more for the little wrongs of moral people than the one great sin of the dealer. It’s beginning to seem that more often than not, little is much.
Think of all the infamous evil people in the world. How often did they sin? Did they sin any more than we all? Some have committed great sin. Did Christ die for only great sin? Christ died for the sins of many and for many sins. He did not suffer and die for the magnitude of sin, but paid the penalty for sin’s rupture of the law. Every incident of sin is a rupture and every rupture of the law carries penalty. Christ suffered and died for our penalty in breaking the law.
Christ suffered for the call girl who steals husbands while condoning adultery and fornication. Christ suffered for wives who often covet a lie from husbands about how they look. Christ died for the drunkard who took a young life on the highway. Christ died for the loving father who drank a “little” and made it home without incident. Christ died for the little things. Christ paid the same penalty for little as He did for much.
Jesus suffered stripes for contrived genocide and little white lies.
Not as bad as that maniac down the street?
Are you sure?
Little sins cost Jesus Christ just as much!
